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Wheat Field Day Celebrated

By Richa Sharma Puri

Participants during Wheat Field Day at BISA Research Farm in Ludhiana

Wheat field day is the annual celebration of research, hard work, and perseverance. It’s an effort to accelerate the global breeding process and serve humanity with the best in Wheat. This event allows wheat breeders to evaluate/select new, improved advance breeding lines for possible use. It’s an amalgamation of farmers, researchers, and young students from the agricultural field, as it opens a platform for co-creation, knowledge exchange and experience sharing.

Wheat Breeders at Ludhiana BISA farm selecting the wheat varieties

CIMMYT-BISA in India organises this day every year to showcase the breeding process, new breeding tools, mainstreaming of enhanced grain quality traits and integrating the traits needed for future wheat. This year also, BISA research farms in Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Ludhiana (Punjab) invited scientists from different parts of the country to have a firsthand look at the ongoing variety of trials. It’s been a premier event where researchers interact and learn about CIMMYT’s newest advanced wheat lines: heat, drought and disease resistant.  

This year in Ludhiana, more than 50 scientists from the national system and public and private sectors joined the wheat field day. Institutes like VNR Seeds, Shree Ram Seeds, IIWBR, PAU, HAU, BioSeeds, Nizuveedu Seeds, Star Seeds, Dayal Seeds, Nutranta, BHU, Savannah Seeds, and Ankur Seeds participated with full enthusiasm.

A total of 16787 entries and 19256 plots were planted at the BISA research farm, Ludhiana during the 2022-23 season. This includes 6058 standard yield trial plots and 13,198 small plots with two rows for stripe rust screening and line maintenance. Advanced wheat breeding lines from CIMMYT and international nurseries were made available for selection by public and private sector national partners, some of which are described below:

  • Elite Parcela Chica (EPC): 1062 entry.
  • South Asia Bread Wheat Genomic Prediction Yield Trial (SABWGPYT): 540 entries
  • High Zinc Wheat Yield Trial (HZWYT):   50 entries
  • Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trial (ESWYT: 50 entries
  • Semi-Arid Wheat Yield Trial (SAWYT): 50 entries
  • Heat Tolerant Wheat Yield Trial (HTWYT):  50 entries.
  • Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield Trial (WYCYT): 40 entries
  • Stress Adapted Trait Yield Nurseries (SATYN): 42 entries
  • High Zinc Advanced Nursery (HZAN): 234 entries.

BISA, in the last decade has focussed on mechanisation to improve efficiency, yield production with the lowest cost of production. Thus, having a significant positive impact on Indian agriculture. On Wheat Field Day, BISA displayed innovative farm machinery, digital tools and equipment used in farming with latest technology.